in the last couple of years i've become insanely obsessed with reading anything i can get my hands on. the realization of this came as quite a surprise to me because until about two years ago the only books i had read contained, "the berenstein bears" in the title.
one of the author's that i've grown to love is a humorist named david sedaris. i first became aware of him when i heard him speak on "this american life" on national public radio (NPR to those of us who have no life...) then when i found out he had written several books about his quirky family and growing up experiences, i went to the library and checked out any book of his that was available.
about three months ago my neighbor, we'll call her "karen,"... because that's actually her name...
(...but makes me consider for a moment folks who write in to 'dear abby' and identify their husbands or girlfriends or children as "chet" or "shirley"...do the quotations mean that's not their real name? and if so, then how did they come to the conclusion of using "chet" or "shirley" instead..)...ANYWAY, so "karen" said to me, "hey, did you hear david sedaris is coming to the frauenthal in muskegon to speak in october?" karen is really an avid reader, as opposed to me this fraud walking around pretending to know what i'm talking about, and we've discussed sedaris' work on previous occasions.
upon hearing this i immedately thought of my friend amanda r., or green ford focus, as karen knows her as. because friends and random people are always coming and going from my house, she only knows who i'm talking about based on what car they drive. amanda r. and i share a quirky and bizarre appreciation of life and have also on many occasions discussed our appreciation of david sedaris. so i got tickets for us to go and last night was the big event.
as we were parking in downtown muskegon we realized that there was also a "muskegon fury" hockey game going on at the same time around the corner....not that we consider ourselves snooty-snoots or intellectuals by any means, but we were very amused at the ridiculous difference of fan bases between the finely manicured goatee and wine-drinking crowds arriving to hear an NPR award-winning author, versus foam-finger sporting, baseball helmet with beer can holders crowd going to the hockey game. it looked a bit like a modern twist on a civil war re-enactment.
sedaris was hilarious and a good time was had by all. ironically, in the 2000 seat theatre "karen" the neighbor and her friends sat directly across the aisle from us.
on our ride home, amanda r. and i re-hashed his exceptionally witty moments and agreed that we couldn't wait to read his next book. it was also during this time that as we were driving i noticed that the dashboard clock said "9:12" and the radio station we happend to be listening to was "91.2." i said....'hey look at that,' as i made a jerking motion with my head towards the dashboard. amanda r. said, "this is one of the things i love about you....your appreciation of things like that."
we both laughed and it was at that moment i was grateful for an evening with my friend filled with intellectual opportunity and silly every day nonsense.....because that pretty much sums up my life.
more to come...
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